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Bad Creek: Book Launch with Peyton June
Literary Arts welcomes Peyton June to celebrate her debut young adult horror, Bad Creek. Peyton will be joined by fellow debut novelist Isa Aganjanian, the author of Modern Divination, for a conversation about writing YA horror, life as a debut novelist, and more!
Iris, Gum, and Aidan are vacationing in Bad Creek, just like every summer. Except Iris’s older sister, Glory, drowned in the lake last year, and Iris can’t seem to move
on; Gum is hiding his sexuality from his family while being viciously haunted by Glory’s rotting ghost; and Aidan is distraught over a drunken argument with Glory that he fears may have led to her death. When Iris sleepwalks to the dilapidated house that Glory obsessively sketched in her final days, she and the boys begin to uncover a sinister history in the very bones of the town. The trio must reckon with the events of last summer and uncover what lurks within Bad Creek before it takes Iris’s life next.
Gripping and vengeful, Bad Creek confronts the intersection of religion, sexuality, and feminism, and forces readers to reckon with monsters in all their forms—human included.
Twenty-three-year-old witch Aurelia Schwartz has always had to carefully balance her human life with her secret magical one. With a place at an elite Cambridge university college, she almost has everything she could possibly want within her grasp. Just so long as she follows the rules: Make no promises. Tell no one what you are. And never stay the night.
Except Aurelia’s gift of green magic has begun to fade. Worse still, someone is hunting witches – and stealing their powers. Reluctantly, Aurelia needs the help of fellow witch – and dreadfully arrogant classmate – Theodore Ingram. Together, they seek refuge among his family in the remote corners of an already-desolate town. But as she grows closer to Theodore, the power-hungry witch-killer, too, draws nearer. And they threaten to destroy everything Aurelia holds dear . . .
Modern Divination by Isabel Agajanian is a magical cozy fantasy with witches, featuring an academic rivals-to-lovers romance, found family and yearning.
Peyton June
Peyton June writes about spooky small towns and the messy queer kids who survive them. When she’s not creating, Peyton enjoys riding her fifty-year-old Schwinn bicycle, collecting antique photographs, and ghost hunting. She lives outside Seattle, Washington. Bad Creek is her debut novel. You can find her on Instagram @peyjune
Isa Agajanian
Isa Agajanian (they/them) is a writer and illustrator in the United States. Raised in California and spirited away to Florida, then Oregon, Isabel is never writing in one place for too long. They are joined in their pursuit of good stories by a hefty grey cat named Mosse and at least one roommate at a time. Modern Divination is their first published novel at the crux of a hundred unpublished stories. You can find them on Instagram @isaagajanian
